The Skywalker's Curse
by Kidan
Summary: POST LOTF AU. Allana must face the new emperor.


**The Skywalker's Curse**

My name is Allana Chume'ta Djo. Once, I was a princess, beloved by my subjects, worshiped by my mother. Then my father and his cousin came, and destroyed my beautiful planets, ravaged and raped Hapes, turning her into a desolate wasteland.

Of course by the time that happened, I had been secreted away by my would-be aunt, Tahiri Veila, hiding in the backwaters of the galaxy. I remember my final glimpse of Hapes; it was on the HoloNet, as they covered in real-time Lord Skywalker's fleet laying waste to the Crystal Palace. I was ten.

The only thing that hurt worse than that was watching my mother being executed for crimes against the Alliance by my father. He offered her a quick death, if she would tell him where I was at, or if I would contact him. She just spat on him, and Tahiri had to physically restrain me as the torture began. Even to this day, just the thought of artery worms leaves me wanting to scream and cry. That happened when I was eleven.

Sometimes I wonder if the proclivity for evil is just part of being a scion of Anakin Skywalker. The only person who was born of him, and didn't dabble in the Dark Side was my Uncle Anakin. And I have to wonder if that was just because he died when he was sixteen. I am a firm believer that being a Skywalker means that you will eventually become a pestilent blight on civilization.

Of course, Tahiri's hope for me, as evidenced by her sedulous training of me in the Jedi arts, was that I would break the Skywalker curse, and be able to reach middle age without a journey to the Dark Side. I nearly shattered those dreams when we saw Ben kill my father on the HoloNet.

My last parent, the last line I had to the past gone. I almost went insane with my grief and rage with the realization that the only family I had left was the butcher who destroyed my home and my people. I had the temerity to rush out into the streets and assault every Alliance trooper I came across. I attracted the attention of one of Lord Skywalker's – well by that time, it was _Emperor_ Skywalker's Executors. Tahiri sacrificed her freedom for mine. She allowed the executor to take her away to face the Emperor, so that I would be safe. That happened on the day I turned sixteen.

The day I turned seventeen, I found out what happened to my old teacher. She had been forced to become one of the Emperor's concubines. That was also the day I decided that it was time to face my legacy, to fight a member of my own bloodline for the good of the galaxy.

Or maybe it was just for vengeance for Tahiri and Hapes.

It took me a year to work my way to a point where I could travel to Ossus, the capital of the galaxy, and home to the Jedi Order. Well home to Ben's Jedi Order. I arrived, surrounded by Executors and Dark Jedi. The black stain on the Force almost enough to make me gag.

I walked down the street away from the spaceport, noticing the despicable shops that lined either side of the pathway. All manner of beings, selling themselves, their bodies, and any other type of huttsmut imaginable. Keeping my head high, ignoring the stares and catcalls and propositions, I make my way to the Emperor's palace, the building Ben's dad built; the Jedi Temple.

As I near it, I had to stop and stare at it. When I first saw the building at seven years old, it was a shining, gleaming white. The exterior had been fashioned from the purest Hapan marble, it should have stayed that gleaming white for centuries, if not millennia. Yet here it was, just over a decade later, and the entire building is a mass of black and grey and red tones.

Part of me knows that the red is blood. The stories abound of Lord Skywalker ordering dissenters disemboweled, and then drained of blood, which was to be used to paint the building. Yet knowing those stories, still does nothing to change the fact of seeing that once pristine, gleaming citadel of the Light, of life, debased into a parody of its former glory and meaning.

I walked right through the main gate. No one stopped me, no one bothered me. At the time, I assumed that they thought I was a Jedi being summoned by Ben. Today, I wonder just if it was possible for me to be any more naive.

I stepped into the throne room, my hand fingering my saber, the smooth rancor's tooth, with symbols and pictographs lovingly carved into it, my mother's saber, passed down to me. I looked around, and saw my mentor in a corner by the far wall. She was dressed in the least amount possible, while still maintaining a mockery of modesty, a metal bikini top and a long loin cloth. Her blonde hair was plaited and draped over her shoulder, and she knelt on the floor, her head bowed, hiding the collar that a chain attached to the wall must have been attached to.

Glancing to the other far corner, I saw another concubine. This one was physically the opposite of Tahiri. She had brown hair to Tahiri's blonde and blue eyes to Tahiri's green, pale creamy skin to Tahiri's perpetual tan. Yet beyond that, emotionally and in the Force, they both felt the same. Downtrodden, abused, defeated. I had never thought to see my mentor in such a state.

At last my gaze fell on Ben. He had changed from the teenager I remembered from my visit to the Temple when I was seven. Where once his eyes where a bright shining blue, they were now a sickly pale yellow, outlined in red. Gone was the humanity and laughter, in its place was a cold reptilian hate.

When he smiled at me; I wanted to run. When he spoke to me; I wanted to scream.

"Hello, Allana. I have been expecting you."

I tightened my grip on my saber. "It has been too long, Ben."

He nods his head slightly. "So tell me, why have you chosen to come out of hiding now?"

"I have come to stop you."

This caused him to laugh. "You pitiful child. How can you even hope to stop me?" I watched as he stood up and walked over to the brunette. He lifted her chin with one hand, and gazed at her. Then allowing her head to drop once more, he turned back to me. "Her name was at one time Jysella Horn. After I killed her father, she came and tried to stop me. Now, she is my toy. And you know about my other toy."

I felt a burning string of anger and hate writhe through my belly as he taunted me in this way. As I watched, he half-closed his eyes and smiled, nodding his head slightly. "Yes, feel the hate, the anger. It is powerful within you, like your father." He paused at the steps leading up to his throne. "Join me, be my apprentice. It is your destiny."

I shook my head. "Never. I am a Witch of Dathomir and a Jedi. I will never join you." And with that I ignited my saber.

His response was to ignite his saber and attack.

Of the fight, I don't remember much. Just the power and speed of his attacks, the desperation I felt as I tried to parry every blow. I am still unclear on how I ended up with my blade in his chest, as he knelt before me. But I do remember the shock on his face as he looked down at my turquoise colored blade.

His wound was fatal, and we both knew it. I stared at him for a moment and then extinguished my saber. "That was for Hapes."

He tried to speak, but I couldn't understand the soft words he said through the pounding of my heart. And the truth was I was uninterested in what he had to say; I placed my hilt to his forehead, and then bent down slightly catching his attention. When his awareness was fully on me, and what I was about to do, I said my final words to him. "This is for my parents and Tahiri and Jysella."

Then I turned the blade on.

Extinguishing the blade, I turned and ascended the steps, ascended the throne vacated by Ben's death. I know that single dark act will haunt me forever, but I am a warrior queen, born of a warrior queen; what I did was disgraceful and dishonorable, an action unworthy of a Jedi.

Yet I did it, and to this day am happy for it, I know and accept my ability to be Dark and the lust for power that all Skywalkers have. I know it, I accept it, and I revel in it. I do this because for me, it is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.


End file.
